A Big Re-evaluation for East!

I was surprised to see the matchpoint result for this hand when we earned a clear top for getting to the grand slam in clubs. For non-duplicate players, that means that no one else who played the hand bid to 7, and it was played 12 other times. I even heard the story from a friend of a pair who failed to bid game! Now that's conservative, bidding 3 and making 7.

The heart void in the east hand reduces the value of the hand for the first round of bidding, but when west jumps in clubs at his second turn, the valuation takes a big jump, too. When my partner found out via blackwood that our hand held all the aces and kings, bidding the grand slam seemed the right thing to do. And when north led a club, the trump queen conveniently appeared. Collecting 13 tricks was no problem. This hand helped Charlene and me to our win on Saturday evening at the Ontario tournament.

Other local winners at that tournament were Kendra Bridges and Doug Bullock on Friday evening. The teams title was carried off by the foursome of Kathy Dowen, Lucien Stratton, Joan Grim and Charlotte Miller. Congratulations to these winners.

The Ontario Unit staging the tournament provided the usual array of great snacks, always a big appeal in the world of bridge. Many local players participated and the attendance was at the highest level in a decade.

We will start a series of lessons on defense later this month and this will be the last series of lessons before the Boise Regional starting May 15 at the Doubletree Riverside--a weeklong tournament with events for players at all levels of experience and hundreds of visitors from out of town. Plan to participate.